40% off blu-ray at Buy.com

cheddar

It's sort of hit and miss if the titles are the same price as Amazon or $4-$5 cheaper. But it might help save a few bucks especially if you add them up for free shipping. They even have titles like Night At The Museum available for pre-order at a discount to the Amazon price.

In case anyone's interested:

http://www.buy.com/retail/specialty_store_6b.asp?loc=64274&adid=17662

powerlord

Thanks cheddar,I was looking for prices like that!

ND13

Thanks for the link.

They also have HD DVDs on sale. Check out how low they'll sale you the complete Matrix Trilogy on HD.

http://www.buy.com/prod/matrix-complete-trilogy-hd/q/loc/322/204333683.html

http://www.buy.com/prod/matrix-ultimate-collection-hd/q/loc/322/204333684.html

cheddar

Yep, sales like this have saved my a$$ building up my high-def collection. I used to think that the prices would limit me to maybe one or two blu-rays a month. But with these sales for blu-ray coming every month since December, I just wait for a sale and buy what I want from the list. Most of my disks have been a solid 40-50% off retail from the internet and big box stores with the occasional splurge for launch titles like casino royale. .

JoshParsons84

I know this question is asked a million times over and over but what's the MAJOR difference between HD DVD and Blu-Ray? Which one is really the better choice? I'm asking because I need a new DVD player (anger issues ) and leaning towards HD DVD simply because of it being discrete 7.1. But does Blu-Ray also offer that?

Emlyn

JoshParsons84 wrote:

I'm asking because I need a new DVD player (anger issues ) and leaning towards HD DVD simply because of it being discrete 7.1. But does Blu-Ray also offer that?

There are no real differences between the format that any normal consumer would notice. Both potentially have the same performance features, although neither currently lives up to the potential (i.e. no discrete 7.1 with any player or disc yet made).

Grimster74

This is probaly a dumb question but are these movies brand new sealed movies or are they used movies? I already have like $200 worth in my shopping cart.

MikeC78

ND13 wrote:

Thanks for the link.

They also have HD DVDs on sale. Check out how low they'll sale you the complete Matrix Trilogy on HD.

http://www.buy.com/prod/matrix-complete-trilogy-hd/q/loc/322/204333683.html

http://www.buy.com/prod/matrix-ultimate-collection-hd/q/loc/322/204333684.html

The Matrix trilogy pre-order can be had on Amazon for a cheaper price.

Mike

cheddar

Grimster74 wrote:

This is probaly a dumb question but are these movies brand new sealed movies or are they used movies? I already have like $200 worth in my shopping cart.

I've bought from Buy.com before and all the disks I got were new and sealed with those stickey seals you can never get off. They even have pre-orders in the sale lot.

I didn't see anything that would indicate these are used. Did you see anything that would indicate otherwise?

Amazon.com just had a very successful sale on their blu-rays. Drove many into the top 100 of DVD sales (Casino Royale made it to #7 or #8 and they moved a bunch. Could be Buy.com trying the same thing.

cheddar

JoshParsons84 wrote:

I know this question is asked a million times over and over but what's the MAJOR difference between HD DVD and Blu-Ray? Which one is really the better choice? I'm asking because I need a new DVD player (anger issues ) and leaning towards HD DVD simply because of it being discrete 7.1. But does Blu-Ray also offer that?

It's true the stuff you want is a generation off. If you really want the advanced features, you really should wait until the summer or fall when new players and component AV equipment will be released.

Both formats are pretty much equal in terms of audio and video standards. They will play and decode the same stuff, the key is to get studios to release the stuff.

What you will be looking for is Dolby True HD and DTS-Master Audio lossless tracks. Warner produces some of its HD-DVDs with True HD. They produce for both formats but for reasons unexplained by Warner, they always seem to leave the track off of blu-ray releases. Fox, which only produces for blu-ray, uses DTS-MA on almost all of its titles. Sony, which is also blu-ray exclusive, gets around the whole lossless issue by not compressing its sound tracks at all. So you get uncompressed PCM tracks on all Sony releases. This works well since it's hit and miss right now whether or not you can find players to even decode the Dolby and DTS advanced codecs. Although all the players keep the rumor mill going that they will have the magic firmware upgrade that will solve the decoding issue. And Sony will release stomp the yard, supposedly with a True HD track according to this release site:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=766588

Also, on here, you can see that content for the two formats is dependent on studio support. The blu-ray exclusive content comes primarily from these studios: Sony, Fox, Disney, and MGM although the smaller but hit laden lionsgate also is exclusive. The hd-dvd exclusive content comes primarily from Universal which recently opened up its library for a big push following an anemic spring which you will see represented in the exclusives listed for this summer. Warner is supposedly format neutral, but it continues to do some non-neutral things. In addition to continually shorting its blu-ray releases with the true-hd track as already mentioned, it will release the matrix box sets in May, although it promises a blu-ray version for later this year. This supposedly has to do with blu-ray's Java interactive format unable to do PIP commentary at the present time. I don't really much care for such bells and whistles as a reason to delay a title. But it looks like blu-ray will have to wait a while longer on the matrix and batman begins.


As already pointed out, none of the disks are actually encoded with more than 5.1 tracks at present. But it's likely this will change in the future. LOTR already has a 6.1 DTS track in its DVD release. So there's no reason not to expect some 7.1 goodness at some point. However, as also pointed out, players don't support 7.1 out with the lossless codecs at the present time.

If you want a player now that can be 'upgraded' at some point to 7.1, you will need to find an hdmi 1.3 capable player. These players are capable of passing the true hd and dts-ma tracks to a receiver or pre-pro (also rumored to be coming in the summer and fall) for decoding at that end. So the 'upgrade' will be a new true hd and dts-ma receiver or pre-pro when they become available. Any player lower than hdmi 1.3 can only pass on the pcm signal to the AV component, not the lossless tracks.

At the present time, the only player I know of that is HDMI 1.3 compliant is the playstation 3. It also decodes true hd internally. Sony might have an HDMI 1.3 player coming out this summer for $599. But I'm not sure if it's confimed as 1.3. Also, if you wait until Fall, players in both formats are supposed to collapse to under $299. It is rumored that cheap HD-DVD players from China will be under $199, maybe some for blu-ray as well. Although I wouldn't expect them to have any high end audio capabilities.

Sorry for the long response. But this stuff can be really confusing with all the different formats and standards these two camps decided to hit us with. It's taken me a long time to sort through this stuff. I hope what I wrote helps with your purchase decision.

One thing's for sure, once you go high-def in either format, it's really hard to go back. It's really difficult for me to watch my dvd collection now. Which I'm sure was the plan all along with these $tudios :rolleyes:.

cheddar

Just found out that x-men: the last stand on blu-ray has a 6.1 dts-ma track. Fox titles do retail for more, but they have been very aggressive in future proofing their disks with quality dts-ma tracks and now discreet back surround tracks. Nice...